The Kindness of A Boy

My faith in humanity was recently restored - if even for a moment - by a young boy working at the local farm-like store. I say farm-like because really it is just a cutesy overpriced fancy produce stand with some assorted pricey items, a deli, knicknacks usu of the polish variety and a small convenience section probably for the college folk next door.

Anyway - it is summer now - at least as far as hiring new help is concerned and one of the newbies was a boy of no more than let's say 15 yrs, but probably closer to 13?? I'm not great with ages anymore - that skill kinda wore off a few months after no longer going every week at least once to shadow my pediatrician mentor back "down south" in CT.

And this young man had the amazing insight to notice that the pear I was buying for my in-the-car snack on the way to pick up my sister, was a bit "pushed in" and "mushy" up top. "Is it supposed to be that way?" he asks. I blink and look again at this pear I had chosen merely on the basis of a quick squeeze...looked at it as if I had never seen it before, as if I were suddenly seeing through another eyes. The moment passed and I said, "No i guess not." And _then_ he asks if I want another one and should I get one for you? Wow - at this point my eyes were probably wide. "Sure..." While he retrieved the pear, I comment about what a sweetheart the kid is to the cashier, who is probably only 16 or 17 herself and totally barbie'd up with makeup and some silly hairdo with clips and such...She wasn't impressed.

He returns and I go on my way. But maybe for the next 30 minutes or so - well I couldn't help but think how wonderful that simple act had been and how it colored the rest of the afternoon in such a delightful way. I don't think any pear ever tasted quite so good. Maybe a bit of an exaggeration but maybe not.

But then my twisted little mind begins to wonder and wander....why did the boy do what he did?

Another time recently - maybe 2 months ago or so - I was in the parking lot of the local bank, waiting for my sister to come out of the ATM machine. And a lady pulls up with a young man in the passenger's seat next to her. She does her thing in the ATM bbehind my sister and I happen to look over at the car - what else is there to look at right? And the radio was probably some silly nonsense from the "too liberal" NPR (yeah right - saving this comment for another blog entry)...and let me tell you something, in our town it is rare when anyone smiles at you let alone a young teenaged boy of the predominant demographic status (in other words he and I may share more genetic material with each other than either of us do with George Bush ( or so one can hope) but we do not share the same level of melanin activity - ya dig?)...And yet this boy smiles at me like the sun has shone for the first time in months - or some other obnoxiously saccharin cliche...the point is - I've rarely seen a smile that lit up a human being's face as marvelously as his did. And he shared it with me....but why? Who knows? But both of the incidents had me pondering...Are you pondering what I'm pondering, brain? LOL

No clue what any of it means - doubt that it means much...but I do find it fascinating that the new generation is proving to contain a few gems, a few unmarked souls...and I've had occasion to meet just a few of them in a silly little New England town such as mine. Makes one want to grab ahold of them all and say "Don't lose it - whatever it is. Don't let the MAN get you down, dude....stay strong, stay happy....stay in school." LOL But then I'd have to create a whole new blog after I get out of prison or the mental facility to chronicle those ponderings.

*this note brought to you by the makers of PlaCbo - a new medication for today's double blind society.